Rating: 4.5 *****
Published: February 22nd 2018 by HarperCollins
Synopsis: A MISSING CHILD…
When a four-year-old girl disappears from in the woods just outside Fjällbacka, the community is horror-struck. Thirty years ago, a young girl went missing from the exact same spot, and was later discovered, murdered.
A MURDER…
Back then, two teenage girls were found guilty of the killing. Could it really be a coincidence that one of the girls – now a world-famous actress – has just returned to Fjällbacka? Detective Patrik Hedström starts investigating, with his fearless wife, Erica Falck, by his side.
A TRUTH BURIED LONG AGO…
But as Patrik and Erica dig deeper, the truth becomes ever murkier. For centuries ago, a woman burned at the stake for witchcraft cursed the Fjällbacka families who accused her, and now it seems the past may be coming back to haunt them…
Thanks a million to Harper Collins for an e-arc, this review is my honest thoughts.
I am happy having read the recent #10 book in the series, it’s been a while since I read ninth book and loved to return to new story set in Fjallbacka/ Patric Hedstrom detective series and his smart wife Erika, who really solves and gives best tips ever 🙂
I gave the book 4.5 stars, so very close to have full rating, still there were few items I felt against the smooth plot. The cover is impressive! So much fits the story and the thriller mood, interesting read for half of a day for sure!
The book unites many, and I say many characters and their standalone, as one may think at the start, but we know the writing too well, that these all will come to picture – for the main plot. I found the overall plot a little bit too often broken/interrupted jumping from one character set to another and to the past setting. The Girl in the Woods is a mixture of secrets, lies, detective, crime and drama, which hasn’t been solved in the past and drags along, involving new and new characters, who will make a deadly halt to everything.
The story of the past involves a true historic background with fictional story, but … it set’s the attitude of that time thinking and “morals” and is quite disturbing at the end. It’s about families, poverty, “no-family ties”, vengeance…
The present takes a real puzzle trying to solve the past links to the present crime. The four-year old
Linnea goes missing and her parents aren’t sure when or how did she got lost, because none of them has checked on her properly…through out the plot I often had to question were the parents not a little too careless, to allow a 4-year-old to freely play on his own outside the house or alone in the woods? Everyone is so calm about it..that alone felt fishy…as I don’t believe any of the childcare services would have seem this to be ok in real world. What’s odd about the little girl is – she is SAME AGE and lives off at the SAME HOME only 30 years later ,a girl her age went missing and was found murdered alone in the water 30 years ago…ooooh, it does adds the thriller spooky setting!
30 years ago two teenage girls were accused to have been guilty and thus it shaped their lives forever, one had grown up in a bad family, where’s another one – in sort of “perfect” family….the death of the little girl named Stella, set it all upside down…for better or worse..as none of the girls ever get over the trauma and were coping, dealing with outcomes every day… one become a famous actress, the other one a housewife…but they both had their children at the same age… There will be soo many questionings and conspiracy thoughts of – how, what, who…
I will leave out any spoilers, because I want you to read it and have your own opinions about the book! It will be handy if you have read the previous books to figure the jokes and funny sets for the characters that story line develops from each book a little bit more.
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